1. Don't equate presence to performance. Ever heard people talk about how much work they got done because they stayed home and weren't interrupted? Let employees leave the office for a quiet space when necessary.

2. Limit internal communications. Now that we have so many ways to communicate, we have a glut, and it can become distracting, inefficient and counterproductive. Some companies have found productivity rises when email is banned for small amounts of time or even altogether.

3. Create more informal performance reviews. Instead of Hunger Games-like high stakes performance reviews tied to rankings, give people more frequent sessions of actual feedback on how they're doing, where the only consequences are that they get better at their job.

4. Cultivate alumni networks. People leave jobs all the time, for all kinds of reasons — it shouldn't have a stigma of betrayal. Make people remember you fondly. Having folks out there talking about how it was a great experience working for you can be good for recruiting.

5. Make salaries transparent. Yep. You read that right. Once the novelty of having a salary listed on a person's intranet entry goes away, employees begin seeing it as a benchmark and managers are less prone to favoritism.

And at the end of the day, just keep in mind that people want to do meaningful work with talented people. And build your policies from there.

By Tom Merritt

Tom is an award-winning independent tech podcaster and host of regular tech news and information shows. Tom hosts Sword and Laser, a science fiction and fantasy podcast, and book club with Veronica Belmont. He also hosts Daily Tech News Show, coverin...

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Tom is an award-winning independent tech podcaster and host of regular tech news and information shows. Tom hosts Sword and Laser, a science fiction and fantasy podcast, and book club with Veronica Belmont. He also hosts Daily Tech News Show, covering the most important tech issues of the day with the smartest minds in technology.